Can a small force prosper?

[tolaburke]

I find myself wondering.

I only recently picked this thing up. I've been throwing myself at the Yellow Turban Rebellion, first as the Yellow Turbans themselves as an officer(Through abuse of privleges to march around, the Turbans....still got hurt, but we survived on the southern mountains to see the Emperor apparently die of natural causes. As a result it's Dong Zhuo, Sun Jian, and He Jin for control of the land. Have a save file, but it doesn't look good.), then as Pang De under Ma Teng(That playthough eventually ended up with one 'Liu Bao', son of Yu fulou, friend of Pang De, serving under Sun Jian after a capture from Dong Zhuo, take the land by sending swarms of elephants at Wuwei: the same place I started. My first victory...of sorts.).

Turbans means forever war with He Jin and a ton of meatheads in the roster, Ma Teng has the issue of giant land spaces up there in the north west. In any case, both start with a problem of not enough. Not enough people, not enough cities. Which means they stay small, because they simply lack the people, and may have issues getting more if they lack INT/Orator to win debates(You might get lucky that you recruit other fighters by duel).

I feel I'm missing something. Maybe Fictional wasn't the best move? Buyt then the Turbans just get splatted HARDER.

[erobotan]

It really depends on the scenario. In latter scenarios when 3 kingdoms has formed, it's super hard to play as a new custom clan (unless you cheat). Outside of these scenarios then I think it's very possible for small force to unite china.

Same with fiction/historical. It really depends on the faction you play, if you're playing as the faction who get the advantage of the event then it's easier.

[ianliew]

Sometimes all it takes for someone like Liu Yu, Kong Rong or even Gongsun Du to have a fighting chance is the support of a good, solid custom officer. Doesn't have to be a maxed-stat hero, but one which fills a need within the faction. For example, Liu Yu has mainly civil officers, so a solid 80+ war general would help a lot for him, while for Gongsun Du the reverse would be true. If you're joining Ma Teng, then a good advisor would make a big difference, while Liu Biao is crying for a great general (although in his case if you're lucky you can pick up Huang Zhong fairly early).

The Turbans are a bit tricky - because they are fighting on so many fronts. They mainly lack civil officers, so maybe having a good advisor will do the trick. Then head up to Nan Pi and try to recruit Yan Liang and Wen Chou as early as possible, although I'm not sure if they're pre-programmed to reject the Turbans.

[erobotan]

pincher attack helps a lot during battle (you do this by attacking a unit from 2 sides). Make sure your custom officer has a good strategy, from what i heard "way of peace" is pretty OP in forest. It's ok to have overpowered officer if you're in a small faction.

[carlon89]

Most of the time I will place a few good officers in a smaller force before I start the scenario including someone with a good virtue stat to make it easier for them to recruit officers. I will also ally with the smaller forces and help them take cities with my forces and just retreat my force just before the city is taken to avoid me getting the city by accident. I do this until I think the force is large enough to fend for themselves.

[Teralitha]

Originally posted by ianliew:

Sometimes all it takes for someone like Liu Yu, Kong Rong or even Gongsun Du to have a fighting chance is the support of a good, solid custom officer. Doesn't have to be a maxed-stat hero, but one which fills a need within the faction. For example, Liu Yu has mainly civil officers, so a solid 80+ war general would help a lot for him, while for Gongsun Du the reverse would be true. If you're joining Ma Teng, then a good advisor would make a big difference, while Liu Biao is crying for a great general (although in his case if you're lucky you can pick up Huang Zhong fairly early).

I always give small factions a couple custom generals like that, but... those custom generals very often get recuited away by the bigger factions who have charming advisors very early on before they have a chance to build up loyalty.

[Vin362]

It really depends on what Scenario you want to play as each scenario has different forces as the key figures for example in 184 A.D Feb Yellow Turban Rebellion the default is He Jin and the Yellow Turbans with historic events on the map will change to what it looks like in 190 A.D Anti Dong Zhou Coalition. As the years go on there are fewer forces until the map looks like 214 A.D Jun Yi Subjection where there is just Shu (Liu Bei), Wei (Cao Cao) and Wu (Sun Quan) with Gongsun Gong and Zhang Lu left as small forces.

The Anti Dong Zhou Coalition or Warlords scenario are in my opinion the best to play as small force like Kong Rong as there are other small forces near you that you can use to increase you ranks by recruiting officers and knowing how to make use of each forces talent officers like Taishi Ci.

While lack of officers can be addressed by creating customer officers. A major problem with the larger forces in Romance of Three kingdoms is the number of free/empty cities the earlier scenarios this gives forces like Cao Cao and Yuan Shao an advantage as they can move to capture them and still have plenty of officers to spare, it is true that you can create customer forces using customer officers the last thing you need is a customer force that takes the free cities for themselves and become a thron in your side.

[carlon89]

I like it being as chaotic as possible Inusually create forces right next to the other major forces and try and stall them expanding as fast usually when Cao Cao tries to expand and take Runan and Qiao and so on my created force will attack his city from behind I also throw a few legendary officers in with the likes of Kong Zhou, Bao Xin, Liu Dai etc to help them stop he major forces in their tracks. Sometimes though this still fails and Cao Cao or Lu Bu will just wipe them out and absorb every officer I have them which is a massive pain in the backside because then I have to intervene quickly and make my way over there before Cao Cao wipes out the entire country.

[(deleted)]

A small force can prosper, I am refering to playing as free officer, no bonds, no army at start. I have play it as a merchant and lonewolf for 5 years (5 years handicap all force which conquered all city) before going to take over a city either thru bandits or private troops. Focus on meeting requirement for civil servant and advisor.
You need to keep a close eye on 2 things... free officers and specialty (optional: elephant or xiliang troops).
With bonds, specialty it is possible to beef up the stats to higher than AI to match Xiahou brothers and 3 brothers of shu.
Basically it starts in 3 phases, raising flag> attacking 1 force> coalition to weaken the major force

Recommended officers to recruit will be Gan Ning (charge attack, make sure all troops be in range with him) and Lusu (healer).
If you favour cavalry get Zhao Yun and change all your officer to bow using Zhao Yun at choke points (gates and bridges). These officer have no titles and start as free in yellow turban. Guo Jia and Sima Yi are great but takes years to appear, also have your player officer get Allure from Diao Chan. It is worth the 1month+ trip to and fro to recruit these generals or bonding. If they recommend wife to you, marry them and look at the stats. it is not difficult to marry someone who fight better than Ma Yunlu or LLQ. Once you are comfortable, plan on raising flag.
For late scenario, go after officers that aren't ministers/ governors to get them to defect.

Wu area will be a good target to pick on since the SE china is secluded but avoid naval battles. Them attacking u results in low morale at start. If you are attacking, you should develop at city which has level 1 towns so that you don't encounter them when they are in music towers with high morale waiting to defend. Music tower battles is the hardest battle in the game followed by gate battles 5k durability is going to deplete your supply easily.

If this works on Wu, you would have Wei Yan and Huang Zhong using similar method by hitting Liu Biao 1st. I am stating Wu as an example because they have alot of above average officers 80ish stats. Don't go after the major force at start, you need troop advantage as they may attack u at different cities. Your AI defending city isn't gonna last.
Officers I play using this method... merchant Diao Chan, Lonewolf Hansui... normal mode. Starting city always Xin Ye, easy to do request, easy to buy specialty. Raise flag city varies depending on when I complete those 2 prestiges.

If you have gates, prepare to use full bow army to defend it. It is not easy to win a huge bow army camping at Hu Lao gate. Have Zhou Yu or Sima Yi at gate =instant win. If you are playing as weak rulers, just deploy 1k horse for him to attack 1 base and not engage enemy officer. If you have a specialty horse with (Speed+1), that is gonna help play a wild goose chase the ruler game.
Launch a coalition against the major force it will create loads of opening for you to defeat the major force or weaken it. If you cannot launch coalition, make sure to have 2 ceasefire or alliance before attacking any force. Ideally you should never place yourself at a city surrounded by more than 3 hostile forces. No harm using annul function.


Your final few battles will involve gather all 100k-200k troops in 1 city (transfer max grains to this city) to attack the major force, such battle can take up to 6months-2 years when I fight Cao Cao or Yuan Shao 1million total troops. If you are still at alliance, annul it rapport will go to -100. Use this 100K army to take over cities, get as much prisoner as you can do not stop (remember you have Lusu to heal wounded troops). Major medic is available as a strategy as long you have Lusu participating. Battering ram is not needed but helps you greatly if your supplies have chance to run out after 200days. Release prisoners when the major force is left with 1 city, the rapport is going to be -100 to positive. The last city is going to have expenses> revenue. They will either start dismissing officer or not buy elite troops to fight you. This will be your 1 and only large scale battle if you are playing in those 3 phases.

If this is too long to digest, recruit Lusu and Gan Ning. 195AD is the best scenario for you to analyse what I just told you. Else Deng Ai or Sima Yi will be your primary bond target for late scenarios, the 3 forces are evenly matched anyway, doesn't matter if you don't have them.